---
page_title: Login protocol reference
description: >-
  The login protocol authenticates Terraform against servers that provide Terraform-native services. Learn about the login protocol.
---

# Login Protocol Reference

This topic provides reference information about the login protocol Terraform uses for authentication against servers that profide Terraform-native services. You can use this reference information to offer Terraform-native services in a third-party system.

## Introduction

The `terraform login` command supports performing an OAuth 2.0 authorization
request using configuration provided by the target host. You may wish to
implement this protocol if you are producing a third-party implementation of
any [Terraform-native services](/terraform/internals/remote-service-discovery),
such as a Terraform module registry.

## OAuth Configuration

Terraform uses [remote service discovery](/terraform/internals/remote-service-discovery) to
find the OAuth configuration for the host. The host must support the service
name `login.v1` and define for it an object containing OAuth client
configuration values. The following example describes a client that authenticates at ports `10000` and `10010`:

```json
{
  "login.v1": {
    "client": "terraform-cli",
    "grant_types": ["authz_code"],
    "authz": "/oauth/authorization",
    "token": "/oauth/token",
    "ports": [10000, 10010],
  }
}
```

The properties within the discovery object are as follows:

* `client` (Required): The `client_id` value to use when making requests, as
  defined in [RFC 6749 section 2.2](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-2.2).

  Because Terraform is a _public client_ (it is installed on end-user systems
  and thus cannot protect an OAuth client secret), the `client_id` is purely
  advisory and the server must not use it as a guarantee that an authorization
  request is truly coming from Terraform.

* `grant_types` (Optional): A JSON array of strings describing a set of OAuth
  2.0 grant types the server is able to support. A "grant type" selects a
  specific mechanism by which an OAuth server authenticates the request and
  issues an authorization token.

  Terraform CLI supports a single grant type:

  * `authz_code`: [authorization code grant](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-4.1).
    Both the `authz` and `token` properties are required when `authz_code` is
    present.

  If not specified, `grant_types` defaults to `["authz_code"]`.

* `authz` (Required if needed for a given grant type): the server's
  [authorization endpoint](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-3.1).
  If given as a relative URL, it is resolved from the location of the
  service discovery document.

* `token` (Required if needed for a given grant type): the server's
  [token endpoint](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-3.2).
  If given as a relative URL, it is resolved from the location of the
  service discovery document.

* `ports` (Optional): A two-element JSON array giving an inclusive range of
  TCP ports that Terraform may use for the temporary HTTP server it will start
  to provide the [redirection endpoint](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-3.1.2)
  for the first step of an authorization code grant. Terraform opens a TCP
  listen port on the loopback interface in order to receive the response from
  the server's authorization endpoint.

  If not specified, Terraform is free to select any TCP port greater than or
  equal to 1024.

  Terraform allows constraining this port range for interoperability with OAuth
  server implementations that require each `client_id` to be associated with
  a fixed set of valid redirection endpoint URLs. Configure such a server
  to expect a range of URLs of the form `http://localhost:10000/`
  with different consecutive port numbers, and then specify that port range
  using `ports`.

  We recommend allowing at least 10 distinct port numbers if possible, and
  assigning them to numbers greater than or equal to 10000, to minimize the
  risk that all of the possible ports will already be in use on a particular
  system.

When requesting an authorization code grant, Terraform CLI implements the
[Proof Key for Code Exchange](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7636) extension in
order to protect against other applications on the system intercepting the
incoming request to the redirection endpoint. We strongly recommend that you
select an OAuth server implementation that also implements this extension and
verifies the code challenge sent to the token endpoint.

Terraform CLI does not support OAuth refresh tokens or token expiration. If your
server issues time-limited tokens, Terraform CLI will simply begin receiving
authorization errors once the token expires, after which the user can run
`terraform login` again to obtain a new token.

-> **Note:** As a special case, Terraform can use a
[Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-4.3)
only when interacting with `app.terraform.io` ([HCP Terraform](https://cloud.hashicorp.com/products/terraform)),
under the recommendation in the OAuth specification to use this grant type only
when the client and server are closely related. The `password` grant type is
not supported for any other hostname and will be ignored.
